A new biography exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Lord of The Rings.
To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 ... by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead. So J.R.R. Tolkien responded to critics who saw The Lord of the Rings as a reaction to the Second World War.
Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life. It shows how, after two of these brilliant young men were killed, Tolkien pursued the dream they had all shared by launching his epic of good and evil.
John Garth argues that the foundation of tragic experience in the First World War is the key to Middle-earth's enduring power. Tolkien used his mythic imagination not to escape from reality but to reflect and transform the cataclysm of his generation. While his contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day.
This is the first substantially new biography of Tolkien since 1977, meticulously researched and distilled from his personal wartime papers and a multitude of other sources.
Download and start listening now!
"This book is very engaging, as Tolkien biography and for its illustration of what WW I was like. I was particularly taken by the personalities of Tolkien's close school friends, in particular the "study in friendship" represented by Tolkien and Christopher Wiseman. Tolkien and Wiseman had significant differences of opinion, but shared a friendship based in part on lively debate. The description of Tolkien's personality as a young man is also fresh and new. This book shows a gregariousness and power in Tolkien's personality that isn't very apparent in previous work like Carpenter's biography or even Letters by Tolkien."
—
David (5 out of 5 stars)